Only eight out of 220 nurses from Philippines pass English test
Hospital bosses in Wolverhampton have offered jobs to 220 nurses from the Philippines - but only eight have passed the compulsory language tests to work in the UK.
Chiefs at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust complained problems with the compulsory language tests to work in the UK was holding up the recruitment of badly-needed nursing staff not only in the West Midlands but across the country.
The scoring system was modified in June, giving nurses an extra chance to pass the test.
The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam is used by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to ensure nurses trained outside the EU have the language skills to practise safely in this country. But UK hospitals have become concerned the threshold is too high and that the health service is missing out on vital nursing talent.
The Wolverhampton figures were revealed in a recent report to Wolverhampton Council's health scrutiny committee.
David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, told members that recruiting nurses from outside the EU was a painfully slow process.
In the exam, a minimum score of seven out of nine was required by the NMC in four separate tests in one sitting.
The rules were modified by the NMC in June so that nurses are allowed to do a retake - however they cannot get less than 6.5 in every test to do the retake. If they do, they will not be allowed to retake the test.
Chief nursing officer Cheryl Etches and human resources director Linda Holland, travelled to London to see the regulator on behalf of the trust, which acts as the lead for a West Midlands overseas recruitment hub.
Ms Holland said: "Converting offers we have made into nurses working at the trust is proving to be a painful and protracted process – the main issue being the IELTS."
She said the trust worked put that with its proposed changes, 58 of a recent batch of 95 nurses who had sat the test, would have passed. Under the current system, only five did so.
"This is the sort of evidence the NMC hasn't seen before and we brought up the fact nurses are having to sit the test multiple times," she said. "We would never compromise patient safety in any way."
Ms Etches said the system meant that, to date, the trust had only been able to proceed with eight nurses.
